Do you ever notice how sometimes your chiropractic adjustments just don’t “hold” as well as other ones?  You get adjusted, and feel better for a day, or a few hours, but the pain comes back?  If this sounds like you, then listen up to the Top 10 Chiropractic Nutrition Commandments!

1. Don’t eat processed sugar! Everyone knows that sugar is bad for you (yes, even a little bit), but what most people don’t know is that sugar is terribly inflammatory, in other words, it will cause you not to hold your adjustments!  Cut it out!
2. Cut way way back on all grains! Grains turn to sugar in your body very quickly, causing inflammation.  Most people are slightly to severely sensitive to grains, meaning that they don’t process them well in their body, creating more inflammation. Grains also tend to aggravate autoimmune conditions. Lastly, grains turn to sugar so quickly in the body that they tend to feed the “bugs” in our body, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites.  Scientists are now finding out that chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and all autoimmune diseases are linked to a chronic infection in the body.  Cutting out grains helps fight these infections.
3. Cut out (or way way down) on pasteurized dairy. Pasteurized dairy is very difficult for the body to process.  Cutting way down on it helps with many problems, such as the inability to hold adjustments, asthma, skin conditions, allergies, and so on.
4. Drink enough water. People need between ½ gallon, and 1 gallon per day of water.  If you have pain, and you drink less than ½ gallon per day, increasing it to ¾ gallon per day for 2 weeks usually helps immensely.
5. Lose the weight! Every 1 pound extra on the front of your body puts 10 pounds of pressure on your spine.  This is especially true for your low back.  Even 10 pounds weight loss makes a huge difference.
6. Get moving! Regular exercise cuts pain by up to 50%!  And it doesn’t matter where you hurt, if you have shoulder or arm pain, walking or biking helps.  Any exercise helps all body pain!
7. Do therapeutic exercises! If you have any question about what exercises you should be doing, you can watch them , or ask us when you come in for your next visit!
8. Get enough vitamin D. By now, everyone knows that they need to have enough vitamin D.  Have your levels tested, and supplement as needed.  Vitamin D, when deficient, will lower your absorption of calcium, making it impossible to hold your adjustment.
9. Get enough (good quality) calcium. Unlike vitamin D, blood tests do not show how much calcium is in your muscles, only your blood.  There is a muscle reflex test that shows when you need more calcium in your tissues.  We use Calcium Lactate with our patients (other calcium supplements don’t work nearly as well, and at the doses you need to take them, they can be dangerous!).  Like I said in #8, low calcium in the muscles will make it impossible to hold an adjustment.
10. Get enough sleep. Lack of sleep makes everything worse.  95% of people need 7-9 hours per night for optimum health.

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